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Topic Review (Newest First)

03-02-2014 11:03 AM

Mrs.P

[QUOTE=Mocha;5114402]Yepp, best to let them start it cold turkey. No slow transition, right to it. Kibble and raw are digested at different rates, hence why they shouldn't be fed at the same time. Join "The Raw Feeding Community" on Facebook, great information there.

Yepp, best to let them start it cold turkey. No slow transition, right to it. Kibble and raw are digested at different rates, hence why they shouldn't be fed at the same time. Join "The Raw Feeding Community" on Facebook, great information there.

The facebook group(s) do have good info, but there was one that I ran across that was awful! The admins were SO rude to people asking questions. Their basic reply was "go read the files," and that got more and more rudely stated in various forms as time went on. Some were so militant about feeding ONLY whole prey that they shunned anyone asking q's about anything else.

There is a GSD group on there that also has some good info on raw as well.

03-01-2014 06:23 PM

katdog5911

Oh and I want to add... I gave my girl a knuckle bone the other day. It kept her busy for a while. I took it away after a bit, planning on giving it to her at some later date. The next morning she threw up what to me was a huge piece of partially digested bone. I was freaking out! After doing some research and asking questions, I found out that it is a fairly normal occurrence. Still pretty scary to me. I haven't given it back to her yet. I am paranoid about choking and obstructions!!

03-01-2014 06:15 PM

katdog5911

I just started raw almost 3 weeks ago. We did kibble as a separate meal for 2 days and then just went raw. I was told that mixing kibble and raw can make the dog sick due to different ways of digesting them. They digest the raw a lot faster. This is why even if the meat has salmonella in it, it doesn't stay in their system long enough to get a hold. Kibble on the other hand digests a lot slower so it would keep the bacteria or whatever in the dog's system longer, increasing the chances of getting sick. I think it is ok to feed separately though.

When I first started my pup on raw..I kind of cheated. I purchased a meat grinder from Northern Tool for $99 and it was powerful enough to grind up cut up chickens...bone and all. Chicken necks were easily ground up in this meat grinder....although I don't think it would handle anything more than chicken and turkey bones....So, I coarse ground everything at first and made a concoction for my pup's raw meals. This evolved into giving her a chicken wing for a treat and watching her deal with that and see her chewing habits versus swallowing large chunks...she seemed to be a bit of a cruncher but I felt a bit concerned as she would swallow bigger pieces of
the wing than I was hoping for ....me being a bit paranoid. But, all went fine. Then we stepped up to chicken legs and thighs and she seemed to deal with those fine but always made me feel a bit nervous as she swallowed the chunks of bony chicken....granted she did crunch them up first. Now, I can give her a chicken leg quarter with thigh attached and she plows through that in about 2 minutes ( seriously )...I have started to give them to her frozen so she has to work on them longer and hopefully crunch the bones up a bit more...my dog is currently 1 1/2 years old and this process took many months because I was paranoid as I mentioned earlier.

As far as the "what if a bone gets stuck...." question...YES ! I had grave concerns as well therefore I read up on the situation and educated myself on what to do if my dog starts choking....techniques anywhere from manually clearing the blockage with your hand,fingers,spoon etc if you can get to it....to lifting the dog by the rear legs so as to lower the head ..I guess ...and finally the doogy heimlich maneuver. To date I have not had to use any measures to unblock any choking of my dog. There are numerous articles and videos online if you simply Google it.

I will say this, watching a dog eat a raw diet and swallowing chucks of meat and crunched bone has completely amazed me...perhaps I look at the situation too much as if it were a human eating the same way....my flaw obviously but I am just overly concerned and still always watch my dog eat her meals to ensure all goes well.

If you are anything like me, it will take a while to become comfortable with the process but as time goes by, I believe your apprehension will ease dramatically.

When I first started my pup on raw..I kind of cheated. I purchased a meat grinder from Northern Tool for $99 and it was powerful enough to grind up cut up chickens...bone and all. Chicken necks were easily ground up in this meat grinder....although I don't think it would handle anything more than chicken and turkey bones....So, I coarse ground everything at first and made a concoction for my pup's raw meals. This evolved into giving her a chicken wing for a treat and watching her deal with that and see her chewing habits versus swallowing large chunks...she seemed to be a bit of a cruncher but I felt a bit concerned as she would swallow bigger pieces of
the wing than I was hoping for ....me being a bit paranoid. But, all went fine. Then we stepped up to chicken legs and thighs and she seemed to deal with those fine but always made me feel a bit nervous as she swallowed the chunks of bony chicken....granted she did crunch them up first. Now, I can give her a chicken leg quarter with thigh attached and she plows through that in about 2 minutes ( seriously )...I have started to give them to her frozen so she has to work on them longer and hopefully crunch the bones up a bit more...my dog is currently 1 1/2 years old and this process took many months because I was paranoid as I mentioned earlier.

As far as the "what if a bone gets stuck...." question...YES ! I had grave concerns as well therefore I read up on the situation and educated myself on what to do if my dog starts choking....techniques anywhere from manually clearing the blockage with your hand,fingers,spoon etc if you can get to it....to lifting the dog by the rear legs so as to lower the head ..I guess ...and finally the doogy heimlich maneuver. To date I have not had to use any measures to unblock any choking of my dog. There are numerous articles and videos online if you simply Google it.

I will say this, watching a dog eat a raw diet and swallowing chucks of meat and crunched bone has completely amazed me...perhaps I look at the situation too much as if it were a human eating the same way....my flaw obviously but I am just overly concerned and still always watch my dog eat her meals to ensure all goes well.

If you are anything like me, it will take a while to become comfortable with the process but as time goes by, I believe your apprehension will ease dramatically.

So then absolutely no kibble and raw meat together and just start feeding raw food the next meal?

Yepp, best to let them start it cold turkey. No slow transition, right to it. Kibble and raw are digested at different rates, hence why they shouldn't be fed at the same time. Join "The Raw Feeding Community" on Facebook, great information there.